China's Consumers Haven't Been This Confident in Two Decades

[GS Zhou]

Everyone I know back home seem to pay off new cars with cash

when I came to the US for the first time, the biggest surprise to me is: everyone is relying on bank loan for car, not on own cash. 20,000 USD is not a too big number, is it?

 

[Dungeness]

when I came to the US for the first time, the biggest surprise to me is: everyone is relying on bank loan for car, not on own cash. 20,000 USD is not a too big number, is it?

$20,000 is a BIG number for most people here, considering more than 60% Americans can't even come up with $2,000 for emergency. It was a surprise to me that American are not as rich as we thought. Their income may sound decent to most Chinese, but there are many hidden expenses unheard of to Chinese, not to mention the freaking expensive medial expense and health insurance.

Here comes a good news,
American household income finally topped 1999 peak last year
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...555caaeb8dc_story.html?utm_term=.3f824dbcc879

 

[Jlaw]

Labor cost is too high. Your life will be ruined in a high labor cost society. You have to do everything by yourself as long as you can. And pay a lot to every service. The cooperations between each other is literally shrinking. As a result, the welfare is naturally corroded. Workers in the western society are spoiled. Sometimes human right itself is the biggest threat to the human right.

You are correct. Labor is too expensive in the west. That's why so many people DIY for home projects